


Home

by ageless_aislynn



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, ReverseSnow, Snowells, Snowellsweek2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 05:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4209648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ageless_aislynn/pseuds/ageless_aislynn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A very Snowellsian alternative ending to the season 1 finale, "Fast Enough." For Snowells Week 2015, Day 3, prompt: "Home"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> There's wish fulfillment and then there's SAPPY WISH FULFILLMENT ZOMG, lol! *blush* Yeah, I make no excuses for this, what can I say? ;) If you read, I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Also at [Tumblr](http://ageless-aislynn.tumblr.com/post/122488846085/fic-home-caitlin-harrison-the-flash). ;)

"Home," Eobard murmured as the glowing time vortex beckoned to him. But a moment before he nudged the controls, he hesitated. Looking into the swirling lights, all he could see were warm brown eyes gazing back at him in disappointment and dismay. Suddenly, nothing made sense anymore. Nothing and... everything.

He took a breath, exhaled in recognition and resignation, and opened the pod door.

"What are you doing, man?" Cisco asked, his voice going higher and higher as the other man climbed out. "I thought you had, you know, a plan."

"Plans change," he said with a bit of a shrug. Then he sped out of the chamber before Joe West's clearly itchy trigger finger sent bullets ricocheting all through the Particle Accelerator.

He found Caitlin a split-second later, leaning closer to the monitor that showed Cisco and Joe looking around in confusion.

"Oh my God!" she yelped as he whooshed into being in front of her. She grabbed the nearest item at hand from her desk, a half-empty water bottle, and hefted it like a weapon.

His lips tightened ruefully at her frightened reaction. It stung but he knew he deserved it.

"Why are you here?" she asked, still brandishing the bottle.

"Why didn't you marry Ronnie?" he countered gently, noting the absence of a ring on her left hand. "Why did he and Stein leave?"

An adorable, perplexed crease appeared between her eyes, the same one she got when an experiment yielded completely unexpected results. "I didn't feel that... It just wasn't... I don't owe you an explanation."

He nodded at her sharp tone. "No, you don't, but I owe one to you. I owe you a lot more than that, actually. You stood by me when few people would have, you've done nothing but prove your loyalty over and over again, and I betrayed you. I'm so sorry for that, Caitlin. I truly am."

The crease deepened but the hold on the water bottle loosened. "Nice words," she said, "but words aren't a lot against the _mountain_ of things you've done."

"True." From the corner of his eye, he saw Eddie and Iris join Joe and Cisco on the monitor then all four left the chamber quickly. "Give me a chance to prove myself and I'll do it. You know me, Caitlin. Even if you haven't known my true name all this time, you still know _me_." 

"I thought you were going home," she said, putting the bottle down with a resolute thump.

"The thing is," he said softly, "I realized if I left, I was doing exactly the opposite. Do you remember what I told you in the van?"

_"She's his home. We all want to go home again, where we feel safe. Where we feel loved."_

He knew the moment she connected his words then to what he was saying now. But she visibly steeled herself against over-sentimentality and he fought back a smile. No, his Caitlin was no pushover. There would be no easy redemption for him. It would take work, a lot of it, before he could ever expect to see anything even resembling trust when she looked at him. And even longer before there could be anything beyond that. But that was acceptable. He was a patient man, he could wait, now that he knew what he was really waiting for.

"Will you let me try?" he asked and held out his hand.

She took a deep breath, flexing her fingers contemplatively. "I have rules," she said sternly. "A _lot_ of them. And if you break them, if you're as full of crap as I think you probably really are, then I'm gone. There won't be a third chance, do you understand?"

"I understand," he said sincerely, his hand not wavering.

Her fingers flexed again then, with great deliberation, she put her hand in his. He gave a rare, genuinely happy smile before picking her up and cradling her against his chest, saying, "Hold on."

"Where are we going?" she asked, quickly slinging an arm around his neck.

"Why don't we find out when we get there?" He quirked an eyebrow at her, earning a short, quickly aborted chuckle, before he sped them out of the lab. They blurred past Cisco, Joe, Iris and Eddie, who each yelled something indecipherable.

He ran. All these years, he had longed for home and now he finally had her right there in his arms at last.

***

The time vortex dilated brightly and Barry came soaring through, fist-first, and shattered the pod into pieces.

"Thawne, you--" 

He cut off, looking around the empty chamber.

"Hey," he finally called out, his words echoing slightly as he turned in a circle. "Where'd everybody go?"


End file.
